I went on my first elk hunt when I was 18. I went with my late uncle Bob, who used a Remington 760 pump in .300 Savage. I used the Marlin 336 in .30-30 that I had owned since I was eleven years old, and the Griffin and Howe on a 1903 Springfield action that I essentially inherited on my birthday the February prior.
The ammo I used in the .30-30 was a handload 170 grain Speer Hot-Core bullet over a full charge of W-W 748. That's what I shot the elk with. The load for the Springfield was a 180 grain Nosler Partition over 54 grains of IMR 4350 in ancient Frankford Arsenal brass.
The .30-30 worked and later, when I got a horse and started using her in elk country, I kept using the .30-30, too. It kept right on working.
I shot seven elk with it in my lifetime thus far.
I shot another seven with a .270, using 130 grain Barnes X bullets, mostly.
I shot my most recent one last fall with a 117 grain Interlock from my .257 Roberts A-Bolt II Medallion.
